To bridge infrastructure for fiat and digital asset payments, Singapore-based Nium acquires cryptocurrency wallet startup Cypher

Cypher, a crypto-native non-custodial wallet and issuance firm supported by Y Combinator and Coinbase Ventures, has been purchased by Nium, a cross-border payments infrastructure startup with joint headquarters in San Francisco and Singapore.

Nium said in a statement on Thursday that the purchase can broaden its platform to facilitate payments for both digital and fiat assets. According to Nium, the purchase offers extensive operational expertise in developing and expanding products for crypto-native consumers while managing the technological demands of the blockchain ecosystem.

The acquisition comes after Nium expanded its cross-border payment network to facilitate funding and settlement with stablecoins and introduced stablecoin-backed issuance products. Both traditional fintech venturing into digital assets and consumer-facing Web3 startups have expressed interest in its service.

Money should flow as quickly and precisely as data, independent of origin or destination, according to Nium CEO Prajit Nanu. But today, trillions of dollars lay inert in nostro accounts for days, and payouts get caught in correspondent banking movements, the executive continued.

According to him, the acquisition gives Nium the strength to expedite the development of the essential infrastructure required to propel this transformation, such as the layers of trust and value exchange required for agentic payments.

More than 190 countries and 100 currencies are covered by Nium’s cross-border payout network, with more than 100 of them settling in real time. Nium owns regulatory licenses in over 40 countries and issues over 41 million card tokens yearly as a primary card issuer on Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and UATP.